Officer kills armed man near Forks, police say

PORT ANGELES — Authorities Saturday were investigating an officer-involved shooting that left a man dead in the Lake Pleasant area north of Forks on the Olympic Peninsula.

The man was shot by one of two responding law enforcement officers during the Friday evening incident, Trooper Russ Winger, a spokesman for the Washington State Patrol, said Saturday.

The incident began around 5:15 p.m. with a welfare check but escalated into a confrontation and a standoff with the man, Winger said.

The man had a gun, but Winger couldn’t say if he fired it or pointed it at the responding officers.

“Obviously, one of the officers felt that they needed to take deadly force on that,” he said.

The two responding officers involved, Officer Michael Gentry with the Forks Police Department and Sgt. Edwin Anderson of the Clallam County sheriff’s office, were placed on paid administrative leave. Winger could not say which of the two had opened fire on the man.

The man’s name was not released because authorities are having trouble notifying his next of kin, Winger said.